Greenacres City To Fill Vacancy Without Election

April 15, 1988|By PAMELA ADKINS-RAMEY, Staff Writer

GREENACRES CITY -- Only 21 days after voters approved a referendum calling for council members to fill vacant seats on the board without special elections, the council will use the ordinance for the first time.

The City Council decided in Monday`s meeting that each council member would select one citizen from each district to serve on an advisory committee to help select a person to fill a seat vacated by Evelyn Wheeles.

She resigned on March 28 to move to Fanning Springs, near Gainesville.

The ordinance approved in March states that if any council seat becomes vacant more than 120 days before the next regular election for that seat, the remaining council members will elect the successor for the unexpired term.

The vacancy is supposed to be filled within 30 days from the day the seat was vacated, the new ordinance specifies.

Previously, special elections were held, but officials found that the elections created additional expense to the city.

Advisory committee members, who will be chosen by the council by Monday, will review the applications and qualifications of people seeking Wheeles` District 1 seat and make their recommendations to the City Council. A committee workshop is scheduled for April 23 at City Hall.

Mayor James Quigley said that by having each council member select a representative for the committee, each district would have someone involved in the process of filling the vacant seat.

But Councilman James Rawlins said he felt that District 1 residents should have more representatives on the board because it is their district.

Quigley said he would select two at-large members to the board, an action he feels will equal things.

Quigley said the city has received four applications for the position. The four applying are:

-- Trixi Fornash, a 10-year resident, and a bookkeeper/office manager with a private investment/development company in West Palm Beach;